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Utilities (Electric, Gas & Water)

The Power Generation, Transmission & Distribution business environment today is perhaps the most challenging it has ever been.  On the Generation side of the business there are increased capacity factors, demands to decrease equivalent forced outage rates, reductions in capital and O&M budgets/expenditures, changing fuel dynamics and uncertain regulatory pressures. On the T&D side of the business there are increased regulatory pressures (NERC Reliability and CIP), unclear energy policies, increased demands for green and renewable energy, along with the afore-mentioned reductions in capital and O&M budgets/expenditures and uncertain regulatory pressures.  These and other challenges are extending the boundaries of creativity and ingenuity of the leaders running the Utility business.

How well you maximize the returns on your existing assets is a crucial component of your competitiveness. 

Safety, environmental compliance and reporting, fuel handling and delivery, optimizing operating expenses such as energy, outages, maintenance, personnel productivity, water chemistry and chemicals, minimizing losses and optimizing station power are among a number of factors that are within the control of the power generation facility.  Safety, customer service and delivery, optimizing operating expenses such as energy, outages, maintenance, fleet management and personnel productivity, minimizing losses and reducing customer outage minutes are factors within the control of the T&D organization.

What we find is that within this environment there is a wide variation in performance between leaders and laggards, even among sites within the same company. The demands to achieve significant performance improvement have been never more immediate and necessary. The financial and qualitative rewards from a successful improvement effort on existing assets are quite significant indeed.

We offer world-class products and services to help you achieve world-class performance.

Working With You To Build Your Vision into Reality

You want to make improvements and build your market value, yet your organization is struggling to make the progress necessary.  You know that your pace of advancement is keenly important given today’s industry demands and shareholder expectations.

We work with you and your team to accelerate the growth of your competitiveness while reinforcing change with measurable and sustainable results.  Through our process, you and your team learn and internalize the disciplines and practices necessary to perpetuate these improvements.

Utilities Functional

Chief Executive Officers — How to build and sustain:

  • a healthy, more competitive company?
  • leading-edge “availability” of our producing assets?
  • reserve growth that’s faster and more cost effective?
  • our optimum asset utilization for maximum gross margin?
  • our optimum operating/SGA for maximum net cash margin?
  • top 10% in net income, ROCE, safety, environmental performance?
  • the growth of our future leaders, faster?
  • improved alignment between our strategic and tactical plans?
  • higher-impact projects at lower cost?
  • the pro-active leadership we want with our market analysts?
  • the positive contribution board members can make?
  • our key talent to mitigate our 15 year age and tenure gap?
  • ourselves for the key strategic challenges of the next decade?

Finance/Administration/IT — How to:

  • more capably manage margins, cost and production?
  • more effectively manage contractors and services?
  • define our technology strategy for the next decade?
  • improve our competitiveness faster?
  • build more “business think” into what we do?

Power Generation — How to:

  • create a safe work environment
  • create and implement Operational and Maintenance excellence
  • improve Materials Management
  • develop meaningful metrics
  • improve Equivalent Availability Factor (EAF)
  • reduce Forced Outage Rate (FOR)
  • improve outage management (time, cost and scope completion)

Transmission & Distribution — How to:

  • meet and exceed NERC requirements
  • improve Reliability
  • decrease customer outage events
  • decrease customer outage minutes
  • improve customer response time
  • optimize the work stream
  • implement new technologies

Utilities support — How to:

  • manage facilities, fleet maintenance and costs
  • get the most out of your CMMS
  • improve Supply Chain Management
  • meet and exceed regulatory requirements
  • improve Customer Call Center operations
  • develop and implement succession planning
  • develop and deliver management & supervisory training

Cross-Functional Capabilities — How to:

  • more effectively manage inter-functional communication, ensure cooperation and cross-functional processes and activities?

Utilities Organizational Development

Leadership — How to:

  • define our leadership development needs?
  • improve our attract/develop/retain program?
  • accelerate our growth and competitiveness more every day?
  • grow our cross-functional collaboration?
  • build employee satisfaction to top 10th percentile?
  • grow our 1st line management’s pro-active involvement with their employees?

Strategy — How to:

  • more astutely define our strategy and value-proposition?
  • more clearly define what differentiates us?
  • increase our competitiveness against our defined KPI’s?
  • restructure our asset portfolio based on our strategy?
  • have a “win in this field” strategy everywhere?
  • pro-actively dispose of our “non-strategic” assets?
  • manage and steward our facilities strategically?

Organization – How to:

  • integrate our acquired assets and team members?
  • define the organizational structure that builds value fastest?
  • build capability for new environmental specs?
  • build a common structure across multiple locations?
  • account for process, skills, and strategy considerations?

People — How to:

  • develop for the future those we hired in the past?
  • build developmental programs based on our future needs?
  • drive productivity and capture its value?

Culture — How to:

  • measure our culture and know how to manage it?
  • establish improvement areas and address them?
  • use cultural drivers to improve our competitiveness?
  • train our team members to achieve our desired outcome?

Process — How to:

  • improve our communications and alignment?
  • move us from “event driven” to “results driven?”
  • easily move team members across different assets?
  • reduce “workover” time by 25%?
  • accomplish a 10%  per BOE cost reduction?
  • use process to win our cost/create value paradox?

For Case Studies, Leadership Insights and other materials and information Contact:

Bill Rutherford
214.675.7562